The recently-launched monthly index includes aggregate and anonymous employment data from approximately 50,000 small businesses with fewer than 20 employees. These small firms use Intuit Payroll, the nation’s leading small business payroll provider with more than 1 million customers.
“All the numbers indicate a continuing recovery for small businesses that began in the summer of 2009,” said Susan Woodward, the nationally-recognized economist who helped Intuit create the index. “And while the numbers may seem small, they show clearly that small businesses are hiring, and stopped trimming their payrolls last summer.”
Compensation, Hours Worked Remain Flat
Intuit also measures average compensation for all employees and hours worked per month for hourly employees. Both of these numbers remained flat in March, at $2,562 per month for all employees and 103.1 hours worked by hourly employees. This translates to wages of about $31,000 per year for all employees and a nearly 24-hour work week for hourly employees.
“Small businesses are hiring, but with the excess supply of workers, they don’t have to pay more to lure people away from other jobs, because so many do not have a job,” said Woodward, who served for 10 years in Washington, first as chief economist of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and later the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The numbers indicate that small businesses hiring may already be improving as the rest of the economy is slowing its decline in employment.
“There are signs that a recovery is taking place among the smallest businesses in the country,” said Cameron Schmidt, vice president of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions division. “Small businesses generally recover faster than larger businesses because it’s easier for them to begin hiring. This natural growth that we’re seeing in the Index, combined with new small business hiring incentives, may continue to help improve the situation.”
